Be Thankful and Rest -23/02/2014

Grant kitting up for dive two

I had agreed to go diving on Sunday with Laura and Grant. Our plan was to go to the A-Frames, Finnart for two dives - it's a great novice site. I had initially thought about driving over the Rest And Be Thankful to St Catherines and Loch Fyne, but had heard that the local dive school, with whom I learnt to dive, were heading there. Upon arrival at Finnart we found the car park jam packed and scuba divers bobbing around like flotsam and jetsam. So we continued around the loch to Conger Alley, a suitable site for the whole group (Fast Ed, Big Mack & Sergeant Chris subsequently joined our plans although Big Mack was suffering from bad food the night before and decided to provide some shore cover).

Once parked, I noticed a couple of people messing about with dive kit across the road. A quick conversation revealed that one of them worked for Aberdeen Watersports and they were down diving the site for the first time. I gave them some pointers and left them to themselves. Afterwards, I heard they had a great dive including a seal encounter at around 20m.

The first dive was a relatively sedate affair down to about 17m with little life about. We later heard about the seal and, as regular readers will know, that always scares the life away from a reef. 

After a sandwich and a bit of Ed-baiting we headed in for our second dive (19m). It started well with the discovery of a small lumpsucker. As neither Laura or myself had seen one before we had no idea what it was, I guessed wrongly at John Dory. On the dive I also found a nice little butterfish and a well camouflaged, large edible crab that surprised Grant somewhat (yes, I heard him squeal - very manly). However, it was Grant that was to emerge from the sea the hero after finding a bungee finstrap that Ed had lost on the first dive.

On route home I found out the Rest And Be Thankful had been closed at midday as a result of a landslide (they're quite common up there). So all in all conger Alley was a good choice as we got to go home, be thankful and rest after two decent dives.
I'm afraid I took no pictures, as I forgot my camera, but I've sneakily pealed some off Facebook so you can have something to look at. Most of them are surface antics.

Laura self portrait in pre-dive rain

  

Pre-dive contemplation

Fast Ed & Sergeant Chris

Yippee ki yay mother lumpsucker! 

I'm not sure what he's doing...you decide